Wi-Fi and cloud computing will wipe out the STB market

Cisco's latest move to sell Linksys, while Google is selling Motorola's set-top box business, is a harbinger of dramatic changes in the consumer-oriented set-top box market.

In the next few years, the consumer's home entertainment system will be greatly changed, the number of boxes under the TV will be reduced, but broadband access network operators will not easily give up broadband access and even pay-TV leadership, when Wi-Fi technology will play a key role.

Cisco is recently preparing to linksys its wireless router business, and Google is selling Motorola's set-top box business. The actions of the two companies have sent a message to the industry that the way home entertainment is being delivered is changing, and that a new opportunity lies with ISPs who want to keep at least one box at home.

Destroy the box under the TV

A white-collar worker who comes home from work pulls out an iphone, touches two, and the living room's big-screen TV begins to broadcast a hit-American play via Airplay wireless technology, just one of the latest evolutionary achievements in the home entertainment system.

Today, many people realise that devices such as televisions, game consoles and even Blu-ray players have been able to receive entertainment from the cloud from Netflix, Hulu or Amazon. For consumers at home with all kinds of boxes (TV set-top boxes, Apple TV, Rokus HD players, game consoles), they need to start subtracting, even Blu-ray players can omit. But the question is: Is there any need for consumers to keep their cable-TV service Set-top boxes?

Some analysts, and even cable-TV operators, think the day will come when the set-top box is invited out of the living room.

Even pay-TV providers have begun to consider providing video-on-demand services from the cloud. In fact, the function of a set-top box is three points: authentication, channel navigation and a hard disk for storing content. But with cable operators starting to pursue interactive channel guides or recommended technologies, these rigid set-top boxes seem a bit out of date. In fact, the most aggressive Comcast has launched a video (cloud) on-demand service that can be viewed on any device.

High-performance home Wi-Fi network will be the selling point of ISP

This goes back to the opportunities that ISPs face at the beginning of this article. While Cisco may think Linksys's business is over, the market demand for more high-performance home Wi-Fi networking products has been growing, and ISPs will be the perfect choice to provide this type of product.

The air play technology that Apple TV supports requires that WI-FI,PS3 and Xbox game hosts also need Wi-Fi, and that even high-definition players need WI, if consumers need to watch video content through Wi-Fi in their bedrooms or study, Also increases the load on the Wi-Fi network.

Moreover, today most consumer-grade Wi-Fi products do not support the bandwidth required for 1080P high bitrate video, in other words, although home Wi-Fi router products are highly popular, But users who actually use High-performance home Wi-Fi products that meet future living-room video and entertainment content are still very few.

Take Time Warner, for example, a year ago, the company installed a 802.11n router for customers, but soon after the market appeared 802.11a/c router, support 5GHz band, video transmission performance is better, if operators can not provide high-performance Wi-Fi products, consumers will choose to buy their own market, So that the operator's "box" cleared out of the living room.

Cisco sells Linksys to show that the personal Wi-Fi product market has stalled, the innovation is weak, this time the network operator actually completely can, also needs to carry on the promotion home Wi-Fi network quality The heavy duty, because this for the network operator is will "the box" puts into the consumer living room the perfect opportunity, It will also lay the foundation for the entire living room entertainment industry.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)